Alexia had considered many ways to ease the tension between herself and Alice.
But all of them required time.
She thought of Sino, and as a girl, she empathized, which led her to the idea of playing poker together as a way to resolve their conflict.
The next day, inside the Crimson Knight Order headquarters.
The red-haired uncle saw Princess Alice limping and couldn't help but ask:
"Princess Alice, what happened to your leg?"
"I accidentally injured it yesterday while sparring with Beatrice, the War God!"
"So that's what it was! I almost misunderstood!"
"Misunderstood what?"
"Nothing..."
The red-haired middle-aged captain didn't dare to voice his true thoughts.
Mainly, others had been discussing it in private, and he was a bit curious, so he asked.
"What kind of man is wishy-washy? Speak your mind!" Alice said.
Lately, Alice's temper had been very bad.
"Then, can we talk somewhere with fewer people?"
The two arrived at Alice's office.
The middle-aged uncle then revealed what people had been discussing about Alice behind her back.
"Everyone was saying that Princess Alice was limping because of *that*, and I was a bit curious, which is why I asked. These aren't my own thoughts." The red-haired uncle defended himself.
"You may leave! I don't blame you!"
"Yes!"
Alice felt she had no right to get angry, even if she wanted to.
After all, those people's guesses weren't wrong; she truly was limping because of *that*... That night, as Alice was about to go home, Alexia stopped her again.
"Alexia, what do you want to do now?"
"Play poker!"
"..."
Alice turned and ran.
She definitely couldn't win a fight, so running was her only option.
However, it wasn't very effective; she was caught 30 seconds later.
It was only because Alexia didn't want to hurt her that she wasted more time.
Just like last time, her magic power was drained.
Then they played poker together.
The next day, Alice felt she couldn't face anyone, but as the captain, she had to lead by example and couldn't be absent.
She had to use the same excuse as last time: she was injured while sparring with Beatrice, the War God... This kind of day continued for five days.
On the sixth day, Alice encountered Beatrice, the War God.
Then she saw something she would never forget, and she even participated in it.
Alice, Beatrice, Alexia, and Sino played mahjong together... During this time, Alice felt utterly helpless.
The most infuriating thing was that she didn't dare to tell anyone about it.
That would damage her image.
Most importantly, she wasn't taken away by Sino, but by Alexia.
Life was like a force... If you can't resist, then enjoy... Alice gradually got used to this kind of life.
The tension with Alexia also eased.
After all, with both of them being so open with each other, there was bound to be some reconciliation... On campus, as usual, everyone started doing their own things after school.
Half an hour after school, the number of students on campus was steadily decreasing.
Suddenly, a thick fog appeared.
Alexia, Claire, and many other students were all caught in the mist.
"Why do I have a collar around my neck!"
"Me too!"
"There's also a timer on it!"
"My number is 724."
"My number is 556."
Alexia lowered her head and looked at the collar around her neck.
"The number displayed on it is 13487."
Alexia looked at Beatrice, the War God, beside her; her number was 23659.
"It seems this number is the amount of magic power!"
Milia was also by Alexia's side. Since Milia was the Student Council vice president, the Student Council had some matters to deal with today, so Milia came.
Alexia looked at Milia; the number on her collar was 2000.
"How can it be 2000!"
Milia's strength was even greater than her own and Beatrice, the War God's; the number 2000 was a bit too low.
At this moment, an undead appeared in the fog, and Alexia was about to make a move.
A figure emerged from the fog and killed the undead.
It was Claire.
Alexia looked at Claire's collar.
"36548."
"Milia's magic power should be similar to Claire's, but it seems she found a way to control the number displayed on the collar," Alexia thought to herself.
At this moment, Sino, who was at the school, also sensed that something was wrong.
A peculiar magic power fluctuation appeared in the fog, and the strange magic power gradually formed an object that wrapped around his neck, finally turning into a collar.
The number on the collar was 99999.
It wasn't that Sino's magic power was 99999, but rather that the display limit of this collar was 99999.
On the other side, Sid overlooked the academy from the rooftop.
The sudden mist made Lord Shadow sense danger.
He immediately entered the mist, pretending to be an ordinary student.
After entering the fog, a collar also appeared around Sid's neck.
Sid arrived at the training room.
At this time, Sid saw his classmate Suzuki. He and Christina, the Duke's daughter, were considered family, likely distant cousins, but their relationship wasn't very good.
Like Sid, he was poor at studies and had low strength.
However, his overall strength was even lower than Sid's.
There was a collar around his neck, and the number had already turned to 1.
And there were several corpses here, their heads no longer on their bodies.
It looked like their necks had exploded.
Suzuki also saw Sid.
"Save me! Save me!"
Suzuki rushed towards Sid like a madman.
Sid dodged directly.
Suzuki fell to the ground.
At this moment, the number on his collar turned to 0.
Immediately after, the collar exploded, and Suzuki became a corpse with his head separated from his body.
"The collar explodes when it reaches 0, right?"
Sid thought of a plan.
Black magic power appeared on her, disguising herself as Suzuki.
And she changed her magic power circuit.
The number changed from the initial 99999 to around 600 magic power, making it look similar to Suzuki's magic power.
"Using the identity of a dead person to do what a protagonist should do, making everyone look at me with new eyes—just thinking about it excites me! This is what an Eminence in Shadow should do!" Sid thought to himself.
"It feels like the collar is absorbing my magic power, but it doesn't seem to be as fast as my own automatic recovery."
Sid scanned the corpses, roughly guessing the cause of death.
"These corpses must have been sparring here, used up all their magic power, and then died when the collar absorbed the rest of their magic power!"
Sid used magic power to sense and found the place with the most people.
It was in the academy's small auditorium.
Sid immediately rushed over.